1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to both an apparatus and a method for learning various subjects, and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method for instruction of a student which includes the interactive guidance of the student through a series of tasks contained in lesson frames by comparing the student's performance of the task in a particular lesson frame both with a set of absolute performance standards for the task and with acceptable performance standards for the task.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer aided instruction has entered the home market for teaching various subjects as diverse as beginning reading through college-level subjects. The computer acts as a tireless, personal teacher, with infinite patience, working at the student's pace, and is available whenever the student desires to study.
In the area of music instruction, the computer has been used, for the most part, to provide the student with a preselected programmed sequence of learning activities that the student is to perform. In some "interactive" programs, the student's response to each learning activity is evaluated on a pass/fail basis. If the student correctly performed the particular learning activity, the next learning activity in the programmed sequence is presented. If the student failed to perform the particular learning activity correctly, the learning activity is re-presented to the student for another try at mastering the activity and responding correctly. In many instances the student is cycled through a single learning activity until a correct response is made.
A major problem with these prior art learning systems is that they fail to adapt to the particular abilities of a student, and present instead a lock-step, pass/fail teaching method that does not modify its presentation of learning activities to respond to the special needs of the student in learning the subject. This pass/fail method does not provide the student with a learning method that truly teaches the student the subject, but merely "presents" the subject to the student for rote repetition, thereby leading in many instances to student frustration and boredom.
The present invention overcomes this inflexible presentation approach to learning found in prior art systems by providing a system that constantly evaluates a student's performance and based upon such an evaluation, interactively chooses the best suited learning task for the student to master next.